What Democratic majorities would look like in the Arizona Legislature: Education

(The Center Square) – Arizona Democrats will usher through some long-sought changes to ESA vouchers, teacher pay, school meals, and all-day kindergarten if they can wrest the gavels away from Republicans in November.

Only two seats away from having a Democratic majority in Arizona’s legislative chambers for the first time in six decades, the Democratic Caucus has established a plan they say would allow them to hit the ground running in 2025 should they take control of the Legislature. Their priorities include cutting costs for taxpayers, investing in education, addressing water conservation, and creating solutions for the affordable housing crisis. This story is part of an ongoing series of what a Democratic trifecta would look like for Arizona taxpayers.

“I’m hopeful,” said Sen. Christine Marsh (D-Phoenix). “I think it goes without saying that we have a higher likelihood of a tie, but we are definitely hopeful and working on an actual flip. But, even a tie would be a game-changer. In the event that we flip, we want to be ready to govern.”

Empowerment Scholarship Account Program

One of the things discussed in this last legislative session was how Arizona’s Education Savings Account program has been used. ESA dollars allow parents to spend tax dollars allocated for their students for educational expenses including private school tuition.

“I think the vast majority of Arizonans want to make sure their tax dollars are being used wisely and that there’s no waste, fraud and abuse rife in this program and right now, that is the case,” said Assistant Minority Leader Rep. Oscar De Los Santos (D-Phoenix). “We’re going to be looking at a package that ensures transparency and accountability in the program to ensure that tax dollars are being spent primitively and wisely and are not being spent in a wasteful manner.”

This package is one that ran earlier this year and that Gov. Katie Hobbs supported but ended up being held in committee.

“The unaccountable government expansion of ESA vouchers has put our state’s financial security, and our students, at risk,” Sen.Mitzi Epstein (D-Tempe) who initially ran the bill, said in a January 2024 statement. “These commonsense safeguards will be vitally important for giving Arizona children a safe and quality education, and bring the same accountability and oversight to ESAs that we expect for any taxpayer spending.”

The bill adds increased regulatory oversight and requires the auditor general and a specialized audit team to do a yearly audit of the ESA program. There are multiple other provisions in the bill.

“ESA Vouchers cannot be given to schools that discriminate on the basis of religion, gender, gender expression, sexual orientation, ethnicity,” reads Senate Bill 1399.

They must also gain approval from the Department of Education before spending more than $500 and report their household income to the department.

There would also be fingerprinting requirements for school personnel and higher education or specialized training for teachers.

“I would like the fingerprinting to be comparable to what happened in the public school system to make sure we can protect kids,” Marsh said.

Increasing Teacher Pay

Another major talking point is increasing teacher salaries. Arizona has one of the highest teacher shortages in the country and, consequently, some of the largest class sizes.

“We want to be able to make investments to increase teacher pay and god-willing, down the road, reduce class size,” Marsh said. “That is one of my highest priorities, but I realize it’s a pretty long-term goal. We have one of the highest class sizes in the nation and I find that to be incredibly problematic for our kids. I think our kids deserve better than that.”

De Los Santos said that they came up with a plan, endorsed by Hobbs, that would increase teacher pay without increasing taxes, Proposition 123.

“We put forward a package to renew Prop. 123,” De Los Santos said. “Unfortunately the Republican legislature blocked that from actually getting to the voters, but we have a plan to increase teacher pay, increase pay for teacher support professionals like nurses and bus drivers, cafeteria workers and teacher’s aids. And, to do so without raising a dime in taxes.”

This package would extend Prop. 123 for 10 years, increasing the State Land Trust Permanent Fund distribution to 8.9% with the following distribution:

• 2.5% of the distribution will continue general school funding ($257 million projected 10-year average distribution)
• 4.4% of the distribution will raise educator compensation ($347 million projected 10-year average distribution)
• 1.5% of the distribution will increase support staff compensation ($118 million projected 10-year average distribution)
• .5% of the distribution will invest in school capital for safety and security ($39 million projected 10-year average distribution)
• State Treasurer Kimberly Yee opposed the measure, saying it would take too much out of the trust and endanger the fund’s fiscal stability.
• De Los Santos believes in renewing Prop. 123, and continuing to use the State Land Trust Fund is actually vital.

“The Prop. 123 proposal that we currently have on the table uses the State Land Trust Fund which is already being used to fund education and it’s going to be expiring soon in 2025,” De Los Santos said. “So, we really need to renew Prop. 123 or we’re actually going to be losing billions of dollars in funding education. We’ve had economists study that fund and they said that we can actually take out a little bit more each year and maintain the fund’s solvency and integrity while also taking out just a little bit more a year to actually invest in our public education system for our students and our teachers.”

Lower Education Costs for Families

Democrats have two main priorities when it comes to cutting educational costs for families: free school meals and full-day kindergarten.

“We, collectively, have fought and have had some success providing school meals to kids,” Marsh said. “There is so much poverty in the state. Forty percent of our kids are either under the poverty line or hovering right above it and I think people don’t recognize how many of our students in one way or another are food insecure.”

There was a bill that ran earlier this year by Sen. Eva Diaz (D-Tolleson) but was held that addressed school meals that go unpaid by parents.

“A public school shall ensure that a student whose parent or guardian has not paid the student’s school meal fees is not shamed, treated differently or served a meal that differs from what a student who does not have unpaid school meal fees receives under that public school’s policy,” reads Senate Bill 1483.

Additionally, the Democratic Caucus wants to ensure a fully-funded full-day kindergarten that meets for at least 712 hours during the school year.

Sen. John Kavanagh, R-Fountain Hills, said that taxes would be increased under a Democratic trifecta.

“You would probably see all-day kindergarten and then a government-paid all-day preschool and that would cost a fortune,” Kavanagh said.

However, Marsh said that there had been zero talks of raising taxes, and all increases in educational and financial support would be reallocated from somewhere else in the budget.

Other educational concerns Kavanagh has are that Democrats will end open enrollment for district schools and repeal laws that require parental notification of certain things, “and most troublesome is they will allow boys to participate in K-12 girls sports.”

At this time, none of those topics are included in the Democratic Caucus’ 2025 legislative priorities.

“The new joint caucuses in November will reevaluate this list and decide how to move forward,” said Calli Jones, director of communications for the Arizona Senate Democratic Caucus. “I am confident a vast majority of these bills will be run again by Democratic members as priorities as these bills seek to make life here in Arizona better for all.”

Backing Democrats’ play for majorities is a political action committee founded by Gov. Katie Hobbs.

In Republicans’ corner is Arizona PAC, chaired by former Board of Regent member Karrin Taylor Robson, who ran for governor in 2022.

Story by Madeline Armstrong